Suitability and Application of Indian Fabric Material to Western Markets

DESCRIPTION

This project is to understand the suitability and application of Indian fabric material for the manufacture of western apparel and accessories. The attitude of consumers regarding such innovative apparel concept will be empirically studied. An attempt will be made to understand the potentiality and expected acceptability of Indian customers to such fusion clothing.
An attempt will be made to analyse the latent demand for such Indo-western clothing in Indian as well as International markets. While a qualitative study focusing on the views of fashion experts will give an idea regarding the potentiality of such innovative apparels in the market, the quantitative study which analyses the consumers’ views will give a critical insight for the latent demand for such innovative apparel concepts. A set of recommendations which will be prepared basing on both qualitative and quantitative research will help in fashion professionals in using fabrics in innovative areas where there can be huge untapped demand.

 DESIGN AIM AND DELIVERABLES

Research design, which refers to a systematic plan to study a specific scientific problem, plays a vital role in the success of any research study (Erren,et al. 2007). The aim of current research is to understand the suitability and viability of traditional Indian fabrics like brocade and georgette in designing western wear and accessories. There is a dearth of studies which explore the scope for Indian fabrics in making western wear. The present study aims to fill the gap by empirically studying the viability of apparel made using traditional Indian fabrics. The study will have a number of objectives ranging from exploring the intricacies of Indian fashion industry to conducting primary research to understand the dynamics of innovative design in fashion design (the complete objectives of current research are given in the following section). As an inductive approach is selected for the present study, there will be no hypotheses defined for the study. Since primary data (both qualitative and quantitative) is required for the study, data will be collected through field based survey method. A total time of 8 weeks will be required to complete the present study.

Key Deliverables from the Study

Below are the key deliverables of the study:

• A better understanding of the Indian fashion industry.
• Proper quantification of the consumer attitudes regarding innovative design in fashion
• Gauging the readiness of Indian urban customers to use western wear made with traditional Indian fabrics.
• Understand how the tastes and preferences of Indian customers differ from that of their western counterparts.
• A detailed set of recommendations for fashion experts who want to experiment in the Indian fashion industry.

 PROJECT PLAN

Research Objectives

The research objectives of the present study will be based on the research questions that will be the guiding force behind the present study. Some of the key research questions which lead to the formulation of the below research objectives are the acceptability, potentiality and latent demand for innovative products like western apparel made using traditional apparel. As specified in the proposal, the following will be the research objectives for the proposed study:

• Exploring the intricacies of the Indian fashion industry, the evolution of different Indian fabrics, and their suitability for making fusion Western wear.
• Understanding the concept of fusion clothing, and how Indian fabrics can be used to make western wear.
• Finding out the customer attitudes regarding fusion clothing and identifying their tastes and preferences.
• Differentiating the tastes and preferences of Indian consumers compared to the consumers in other parts of the world.
• Explore the theories and models related to the study and analyse whether they are relevant in the Indian context.
• Conduct primary research to understand the dynamics of innovative design in fashion, and gauge the excitement of an urban consumer in purchasing such apparel.
• Come out with a detailed set of recommendations which shall help the designers in optimally utilizing the fabrics to suit the tastes and preferences of the global consumer.

Design Stages and Time Plan with Milestones

The research will be conducted over a period of 5 weeks (excluding one week for the creation of research proposal). Below is the outline of design stages and detailed time plan for the research along with major milestones. The estimated time for reaching each of the milestones is given next to the milestone.

Activity	Estimated Time Taken
Literature Review	1 weeks
Questionnaire Development	0.5 week
Pilot testing	1 week
Data Collection	1 week
Data Analysis	0.5 week
Report writing	0.5 week
Results and inferences	0.5 week

TARGET MARKET AND CUSTOMER PROFILE

Since the research is mainly intended to get an idea regarding market for western wear made using Indian fabric materials, the target market for such products will be rich and upper middle-class customers who have a liking for western wear. The current research will be focused on fashion items of the textile industry and hence will be targeted at consumers who embrace change faster than others. The profile of potential customers who can be targeted with these products is that they should be well educated and well informed of all the latest fashions and trends in the market. Another important characteristic of the target customers should be that they should be early adopters of the latest trends in the market. As specified in the proposal, respondents for the qualitative research to be conducted as part of the study will the fashion experts. Since the proposed study focuses on the viability of Indian materials for manufacturing western wear, fashion experts who have a good experience in both the Indian fashion and western fashion markets will be selected for the study.

The total number of items that will be used in the questionnaire for quantitative research can’t be decided beforehand, as it will be depended on the number of constructs that will be used to get the required information. In general the sample size should be at least 5 times of the total number of items used in the questionnaire, as suggested by Hair et al. (2006). Even though a sample size of 50 was proposed to be used for the quantitative research, the sample size can be revised depending on the number of final items that will form part of the questionnaire.

FUNCTIONAL CRITERIA

Conducting the proposed study with multiple data collection and analysis methods can’t be done by a single researcher. Identifying the suitable respondents from the target market is a difficult task. A more complex task is identifying fashion experts to elicit their views on the fashion market for the qualitative part of the research. In order to facilitate the smooth conducting of data, it is proposed that an external marketing agency will be recruited to collect the required data for the project. Use of external marketing agencies is a proven way to collect the required data and employed by many researchers in the past (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1988).

INNOVATIVE CRITERIA

The main purpose of the present study is to understand whether Indian customers will be receptive to an innovative new class of products like western apparel made using Indian fabric materials. Men and women have different reception levels with regard to latest fashions. The traditional Indian male attire Dhoti has given way to western apparel during the British rule. As a result, many Indian men are now ready to wear designer wear (Muttoo 2008). But women still continue to wear the traditional Sari. But Women too now started to prefer western attire as many women now go to work. Some customer segments like female students and young working professionals are now increasingly preferring western wear as they consider it to be more comfortable to the traditional Indian attire (Kaveri n.d.). Hence, there is a fair chance that there will be a significant chunk of the population who will be excited regarding a new class of apparel like western wear made with traditional Indian clothing materials.

CREATIVE CONCEPTS AND DESIGN CRITERIA

Creativity and design play an important role in the apparel industry. According to Kidd and Workman (1999), apparel designs are generally rated by customers on factors like creativity, aesthetic appeal, appropriateness, functionality, and originality. As the target customers for the present study are upper middle class customers who tend to wear western wear, creativity in the design of the apparel plays an important role in the acceptability of this apparel for them. The emphasis on creativity becomes more important in the case of apparel that is going to be designed for women as only a select group of high income and well educated people will be able to do it. Since the apparel under study will be made using the traditional Indian material, more emphasis should be put on creativity to make their adoption in the market easy. The clothes that will be designed should be designed with a high degree of creativity and latest designs so that they penetrate the market easily.

ETHICAL CRITERIA

As the present study requires collection and analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data, protection of the respondents’ privacy will be of paramount importance. According to Silverman (2009), maintenance of ethical obligations like maintaining the privacy of respondents must be followed by the researchers. With regard to quantitative research, data regarding the demographic profiles of customers, including their name and location will be collected. But the personal information of respondents will not be revealed in the final research which will be made public. Information regarding the respondents that will be made public will be limited to the aggregate figures like mean age and percentage of respondents belonging to a particular occupation. Confidentiality of respondents will be of more importance in the case of qualitative research where the information is supposed to be collected from experts in the fashion industry. Details of fashion experts will be totally kept confidential including their names and the organization where they work for.

 

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